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Yécora fire, 4 May 2025 Moris, Yécora

Out · last detection 30 May 2025, 08:25 UTC

The fire started on 4 May 2025 in Yécora, Mexico, and satellites saw it burning for 27 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 17,687 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 4th largest in Sonora since 2016 (of 93 with a page). Number 4 in Mexico in 2025, of 167.

Burnt area
17,687ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
27days
4 May 2025 – 30 May 2025
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
4 May
2025
Heat detections
1,219
in a single hotspot: 56 MW
Danger at start
53
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
7.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 May 2025
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 May30 May

How it evolved, day by day

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Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

34°high
76km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.2 mm on 12 Jun.

This area had burned before

13% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,957 ha in 2017, 69 ha in 2018, 53 ha in 2021, 174 ha in 2023.

What happened to each town

  1. Moris
    14,185 ha reached on 4 May
    7.8 %
  2. Yécora where it started
    3,577 ha reached on 4 May
    1.3 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
4 May 24.2 °C 18 % 68 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
5 May 19.5 °C 34 % 76 km/h 0.8 mm High 32
6 May 22.7 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.5 mm High 31
7 May 26.3 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
8 May 29.4 °C 12 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
9 May 32.9 °C 10 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
10 May 32.3 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
11 May 32.7 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
12 May 31.0 °C 20 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 May 29.3 °C 18 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
14 May 27.5 °C 21 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 May 28.6 °C 16 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
16 May 28.6 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 May 28.3 °C 15 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 May 29.2 °C 8 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 May 28.2 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
20 May 31.3 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
21 May 33.3 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
22 May 33.5 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 May 32.4 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 May 30.9 °C 10 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
25 May 31.0 °C 9 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
26 May 30.8 °C 11 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
27 May 31.1 °C 10 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
28 May 32.8 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
29 May 31.8 °C 13 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
30 May 25.3 °C 37 % 41 km/h 0.5 mm High 34
31 May after 29.2 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
1 Jun after 28.4 °C 39 % 39 km/h 0.8 mm High 25
2 Jun after 27.2 °C 43 % 46 km/h 0.6 mm High 24
3 Jun after 30.6 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Jun after 30.8 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
5 Jun after 33.1 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
6 Jun after 33.6 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
7 Jun after 35.2 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
8 Jun after 36.4 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
9 Jun after 35.0 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
10 Jun after 33.6 °C 25 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
11 Jun after 33.6 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 42
12 Jun after 32.4 °C 33 % 36 km/h 3.2 mm Moderate 13

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 27 Apr 2025
After · 6 Jun 2025

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 7 May 2025 the air beside the fire reached 64 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 31: 2.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak64 µg/m³
Days over the guideline11 days
PM1067 µg/m³
Optical depth0.82
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Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 1,219Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Mexico ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Yécora fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 May 2025 and 30 May 2025: 27 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 17,687 hectares (176.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Moris (14,185 ha, 7.8 %); Yécora (3,577 ha, 1.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.5 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 76 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Mexico (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Emergency number: 911

Satellite cross-check

Does something look wrong on this page?

This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

Report an error
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We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 911.

Where this data comes from

The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.